History 300.04
Seminar in Historical Analysis
Spring 2005
Prof. Waldrep
Tuesday, 4:10-6:55 in HSS151
http://bss.sfsu.edu/waldrep/hist300/default.htm
Office Hours:
2:00-4 P.M. on Tuesday in Sci225 and by appointment. E-mail cwaldrep@sfsu.edu.
Objectives:
This class differs from most history classes. In this class, students will focus on the work of historians: research, analysis, and writing. Students will locate and analyze primary sources, critique the work of other historians, and present their own work, both orally and in writing.
Texts:
Strunk and White, Elements of Style; Gilderhus, History and Historians; Turabian, Manual for Writers; Mann, Oxford Guide to Library Research.
Requirements:
Papers should be turned in on the day they are due. Papers missing at the end of the semester will be graded as zero. If I am not in my office, submit late papers in the history department or by placing the paper in my mailbox. Late papers submitted without a written excuse based on a medical or family emergency will receive one grade lower than they would otherwise receive.
Calculation of final grade:
Short papers: 40%
Class participation: 10%
Research paper (including oral presentation): 40%
Final exam: 10%
Schedule of Classes
February 3: Introduction to the class: Popular history versus academic history.
Part 1: For this part of the class we will walk through writing a history research paper. For this assignment only, everyone will be doing the same topic.
February 8: The keyword search.
Class meets in the library.
Assignment one: Watch the movie “Anatomy of a Murder.” You are going to compile an annotated bibliography on the legal theory of “irresistible impulse” presented in the film. Is this defense real? Did lawyers ever really use this? Conduct a keyword search in a computer database such as America: History and Life to find five articles that will allow you to answer these questions. Turn in a bibliography of your five articles, cited correctly according to Turabian, bibliographic style. Briefly annotate each entry, indicating the thesis, sources, consulted, and scope for each article. The assignment is due February 15. These assignments will be graded according to your felicity to Turabian.
Readings: Mann, chapters 4, 5, & 12.
Louis Menand, “The End Matter: The Nightmare of Citation,” New Yorker (October 6, 2003).
Gilderhus, chapter 6.
February 15: Assignment one is due.
Assignment two: write a brief historiographical essay (with footnotes, correctly cited according to Turabian) on the topic. Brief means very brief—the idea is to get as much as you can into as small a space as possible. We will discuss these issues in class; your written work will be due February 22.
Readings: Consult examples of historiographical summaries at my website.
February 22: Research and writing.
Assignment three: research the Harry Thaw murder case using resources available at our library. You will find primary source material available. Write a brief summary of your findings. Do these finding correlate with the secondary literature or not? Turn in your entire paper (historiography completed last week plus research summary) March 1. Here are some tips to help with your writing.
Readings: Mann, 266-68, 269, 245-256.
Part 2: Library Resources.
March 1: Government documents.
Assignment four: meet on the fifth floor of the library. You will be assigned a small research assignment. Write your results in a brief paper and turn in March 8.
Readings: Mann, pages 228-244.
March 8: Archives.
Meet at the Labor Archives.
Readings: Mann, 260-265.
March 15:
Assignment five: meet at the Labor Archives. You will be assigned a small research problem. Write your results in a brief paper and turn in March 29.
Spring Break: March 21-25
Part 3: Writing a History Research Paper.
March 29: Selecting a topic: Meet individually with Prof. Waldrep in Sci225. Have two or three possible topics in mind before the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting is to nail down a research topic. It is important that your topic be easily searchable with available resources. You should not spend a large amount of time locating sources; most of the work should be directed to analyzing the sources, not finding them.
After this meeting, you should be ready to begin work on your brief research paper in earnest. Investigate libraries and archives appropriate to your topic.
April 5: Writing an introduction and an introduction to historiography.
Assignment six due: brief analysis of a recent secondary source written on your topic. Include the same information as you did in assignment two, but also include your own critique.
Readings: Gilderhus, 1-27.
Use these weeks to research and write your paper. Do not put this off for later.
April 12: Evidence: the body of the paper.
Assignment seven: preliminary research plan. Due today, April 12.
Your research plan must state your topic; summarize what other historians have said about the subject; the question you hope to answer; and the primary sources you expect to use to answer your question. In essence, this will be a rough draft of your introduction.
Readings: Blight, David W. "’For Something Beyond the Battlefield’: Frederick Douglass and the Struggle for the Memory of the Civil War.” Journal of American History 75 (1989): 1156-1178.
April 19: The Conclusion and more on historiography.
Readings: examples of article conclusions.
Gilderhus, 29-88.
April 26: Historiography continued.
Readings: Novick, chapter 14. Prepare a brief review of this chapter.
Gilderhus, chapter 7.
Part 4: Presentation. If you do not participate in all aspects of the procedure outlined below, you will not be able to present your work in the class history conference May 10 and 17.
May 3: Send copies of your paper to all members of the class via e-mail. This should be ten pages with sources correctly cited in footnotes.
Your introduction should consider the conclusions of other historians on the topic and introduce your own contribution. The introduction is supposed to convince the reader that the topic considered is worth reading.
The next six or seven pages should prove your thesis, using primary sources.
In a page or two, summarize your conclusions.
Attach an annotated bibliography. Submit two copies of critiques of two or three student papers turned in today.
May 10, 17: presentation and critique of research findings. The final paper is due final exam day and should not go beyond twelve pages. This is a short paper.
Your oral presentation must be carefully organized and rehearsed. Practice by actually reading aloud what you plan to say in class. Do not just read your paper – prepare something special for this presentation.
After each oral presentation, student critics will comment on the paper delivered. Criticism must be constructive. Plan to talk for about ten minutes and turn in a five page critique at the end of class. These critiques should identify the subject covered and the thesis. Summarize the evidence and assess its effectiveness. Is the paper well organized? Do the conclusions follow the evidence? Critics should also provide questions for the authors to consider. Make suggestions for improving the papers. Provide a copy of the written critique to both the author and instructor.